Water reservoirs only 15 percent full: Ministry

Updated: Saturday, June 18, 2016, 2:18 [IST]

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New Delhi, June 17 India's 91 major reservoirs are only 15 percent full against their total storage capacity of 157.799 billion cubic metres (BCM), the Ministry of Water Resources said on Friday, with the monsoon yet to hit most parts of India.

"The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on June 16, 2016 was 23.786 BCM, which is 15 percent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs," it said in a statement issued here.

This was 57 percent of the storage of the corresponding period last year and 80 percent of average of last ten years, it added.

In northern region of the country, which includes Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, there are six reservoirs under the Central Water Commission (CWC) monitoring and these reservoirs have a total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM.

"The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.12 BCM, which is 23 percent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 42 percent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 29 percent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs," the statement said.

The situation in other regions of the country is no different as rest of the reservoirs too have less than half water to their full capacity.

In the eastern region, that includes Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura, there are 15 reservoirs under the CWC monitoring with total live storage capacity of 18.83 BCM.

The total live storage in these reservoirs is 3.25 BCM, which is only 17 percent of their total storage capacity.

The country's water reservoirs in western, central southern and southern regions also have shortage of water, it added.